The future of stablecoin payments powered by AI agents

Last year, I wrote an article introducing the scenario of off-chain shopping implemented by @Byte__AI in the Virtual ecosystem. This news was initially shared by a co-founder of Coinbase on Twitter, who was very excited about the breakthroughs achieved by this AI Agent in practical applications.

However, since then, this AI Agent has gradually lost its voice, overshadowed by a number of more dazzling and impressive AI Agents in the Virtual ecosystem.

Recently, Coinbase has started to frequently hint that @Byte__AI might be integrated into its crypto wallet as a default configuration while revealing the latest developments of its wallet. More and more people online have begun to discuss this topic.

In the spotlight, @Byte__AI has also frequently showcased its latest progress, being increasingly applied to off-chain shopping: buying coffee, buying Mexican food… In these scenarios, all payments are made using USDC.

If Coinbase really integrates it into its wallet, combined with the recent hype around Circle's recent listing, we can boldly speculate that Coinbase will use its wallet as an entry point to help a wide range of users, especially those in the U.S., seamlessly implement stablecoin payments in real-life scenarios.

These days, Circle's listing has attracted considerable attention not only in the traditional financial sector in the U.S. but also in the crypto ecosystem. The focus of people's attention is on the application of stablecoins. In the past, discussions about stablecoin applications have mainly concentrated on two areas: one is to hedge against the significant volatility of assets like Bitcoin in crypto investments, and the other is for payment scenarios.

We are already very familiar with hedging against Bitcoin's price volatility. However, I have long underestimated stablecoin payments:

First, because the use of stablecoins faces various regulatory obstacles.

Second, because I really can't see what scenarios absolutely require stablecoin payments given that overseas credit card payments still dominate and domestic internet payments are monopolized.

Now, Circle's listing has basically cleared up the major issues that may exist in stablecoin regulation, paving the way for the large-scale use of stablecoins.

On the other hand, the progress of AI Agents over the past few months has shown us a scenario where stablecoin payments are much more efficient than current internet payments:

A person on a business trip needs to book a flight, then a taxi, then a hotel, and then various other services according to their itinerary.

Currently, each of these services requires a person to search online one by one, find booking interfaces one by one, and then pay online one by one.

But if AI Agents are used, they can find the optimal options for all these booking services in a very short time and make a single payment for all at once. In this case, using AI Agents to pay with stablecoins on the blockchain is much more efficient than using traditional internet payments.

From this scenario, we can further speculate that in the future, the services a person needs will likely be coordinated by multiple AI Agents, and this coordination will involve a large number of payment scenarios. At that time, using on-chain interactions and on-chain payments between AI Agents will be far more efficient than manual operations.

In summary, the future of stablecoin payments lies not with humans but with AI Agents.

In my view, the purpose of stablecoin payments is not to replace existing internet payments or credit card payments, but to create a whole new infrastructure for AI Agent payments, clearing obstacles for AI payments.

Thinking this way, the future of stablecoins becomes hopeful and promising.

Back to reality, although the various functions demonstrated by @ByteAI currently seem very rudimentary and the service forms are still quite singular, it is easy to imagine that once Coinbase vigorously promotes this direction, the future development of @ByteAI will definitely be pushed to the forefront.

On the other hand, even if the development of @Byte__AI does not go as expected, I believe other competitors will emerge, and AI Agents used in stablecoin payments will surge in numbers.

At that time, wallets like Coinbase that integrate AI Agent payments could potentially be developed into on-chain Alipay.

If China has surpassed developed countries in payment applications by skipping credit card payments through internet payments, then I estimate that many companies in the U.S. will seize this rare opportunity to turn the tide in on-chain payments.